Stamford launches program to reduce carbon footprint

Elizabeth Kim

Published 9:40 pm, Wednesday, October 8, 2014

STAMFORD -- In Stamford, like other cities, green building standards that use energy-efficient materials and technology have become the norm across new projects, be it housing or offices. But in terms of the broader environmental impact, planners say the city still has a long way to go. The vast majority of its older buildings have to make upgrades that significantly reduce their carbon footprint.

To address that problem, Stamford will take part in a national program that aims to reduce the environmental impact of commercial and large-scale buildings. Known as Stamford 2030, the program seeks to enlist property owners, community stakeholders and other professionals to establish a common goal of lowering energy and water consumption along with carbon emissions from transportation.

On Thursday, Mayor David Martin, along with other members of the city's business community, is expected to announce the initiative at a press conference in Landmark Square.

The program, which was brought to Stamford by the Business Council of Fairfield County, will launch with 22 founding members. Of that number, a dozen are property owners and managers that have signed on to participate. They include Reckson, Jonathan Rose Companies, The Ashforth Company, CBRE, Charter Oak Communities, and the City of Stamford. Designed to be a voluntary initiative led by the private sector, the program will collect data from building owners for benchmarking purposes but not make the information public.

In New York City, large commercial and residential buildings are required to both report and publicly disclose their energy usage.

The 2030 project was started by Architecture 2030, a nonprofit that seeks to address climate change by changing the built environment. The program has mapped out ambitious goals: a 10 percent reduction in energy and water usage, and carbon emissions from transportation by 2015, and a 50 percent reduction by 2030.

Stamford will be the sixth city and the first in New England to become a 2030 district. Other cities that have adopted the program are Seattle, Los Angeles, Denver, Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

While convincing property owners to invest in expensive upgrades may be a hard sell, Megan Saunders, Stamford 2030's executive director, said a big part of the program is getting building owners to share their best practices and allow for benchmarking. In the long run, reducing carbon footprints can result in significant cost-savings.

"The easy one is lighting," she said. "It's a low hanging fruit in terms of starting to look at your building and having a quick payback."